Fred Holden forwarded a letter from Scott G. Bullock, President and General Counsel for Institute for Justice. An excerpt from that letter:

“The Institute for Justice is headed to the big screen this spring! Little Pink House, the story of IJ client Susette Kelo’s historic battle to save her home from eminent domain abuse, will make its debut in multiple theaters across the country this April. Starring two-time Academy Award nominee Catherine Keener and Emmy nominee Jeanne Tripplehorn, and featuring cameos of several IJ staffers, this film captures the real-life drama of IJ’s work—and the courage all IJ clients share in fighting for their rights against seemingly insurmountable odds.”

________________________________________________

Next month (April 20, 2018) a movie (“Little Pink House”) will be released to some theaters. In Denver it will be released May 4-10. See other release dates near the end of this article.

A quotation from the article “What is so great about social-emotional learning” by J. R. Wilson (later in this blog piece):

“Which comes first, feeling good about yourself so you can
accomplish something worthwhile,
or accomplishing something worthwhile
so you have something to feel good about?“

Search online, and on the Table of Contents page of this site, for other information about SEL (Social Emotional Learning). Social emotional learning (SEL) has been taking place in schools for decades, but SEL is now specifically named in the schools, and is touted as what education should be all about.

ESSA (federal education program) provides funding for SEL. That is one result of ESSA being nationally implemented. No, we have not gotten rid of Common Core and federal control of education. You can find the following information online:

Also search this site for “ESSA”(Every Student Succeed Act) – the federal legislation that cemented Common Core into federal law. Note: people in Congress and the U.S. Department of Education deny what ESSA did — and instead they parrot words claiming ESSA eliminated Common Core — claiming that education is now decided on a local level. That is not what happened. People too often parrot what they are told, without finding out for themselves. Search this site for “Betsy DeVos.”

Understanding what SEL actually is, will enlighten you about:
1) a main cause of the dumbing down of American education;
2) the data-gathering on identified students and everyone that touches their lives;
3) the collecting of personal data, and storing it with personal identifiers — then distributing that data at will;
4) and the mind and behavior control that is actively taking place in schools across the country. [This is all Type #2 education, rather than Type #1 education – see Home Page of this site]

“It proves that government, made up of “mortal men,” is prone to abuse if left unchecked by courageous citizens like the Bundys who peacefully stood firm on their Constitutional rights. ” … Eagle Forum, Eunie Smith President , February 5, 2018

Many Eagle Forum members rejoiced when Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy was cleared of all federal charges on December 20, 2017, and walked free after 700 days of false imprisonment. The whole story is now told by one of Bundy’s attorneys, Joel Hansen. It proves that government, made up of “mortal men,” is prone to abuse if left unchecked by courageous citizens like the Bundys who peacefully stood firm on their Constitutional rights.

All Americans owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Bundy and his family and to all those who supported them. As the article concludes: “Cliven Bundy and his sons are modern American heroes, who fought against tyranny at the peaceful battle of Bunkerville, in memory of the bloody battle against tyranny at Bunker Hill.”

Cliven Bundy’s ancestors on his mother’s side came, as pioneers, to the Gold Butte area of the southern Nevada desert in 1877 and began ranching from scratch. In doing this they established grazing rights and water rights — preemptive legal rights under Nevada law which gave them permanent rights to graze cattle on that land. Those legal rights were passed down through the years to Cliven Bundy and his family. In 1934, the Taylor Grazing Act was passed by Congress, an act designed to assist ranchers, especially in the arid American West, to raise cattle for the benefit of Americans — by putting delicious and nutritious beef on their tables. The Bundy ranch is located about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, near the town of Bunkerville.

These pioneers conquered this hostile, arid land and made it into a productive ranch by making water and feed available to their cattle and learning how to manage the cows so that they could survive in such an arid place, an area mostly covered by sagebrush and creosote bushes. Because of the water and increased food made available by the ranchers’ efforts, wildlife flourished. The most numerous animal wildlife in the area is the desert tortoise. The tortoises flourished because the cows eat woody bushes which are above the level the tortoises can reach, and then they leave a delicacy for the tortoises on the ground where they can reach it. The tortoises’ main course and dessert is cow pies, which contain all of the nutrients and moisture the tortoises need for survival.

In 1946, the Bureau of Land Management was created by Congress with the mission of helping ranchers to succeed by helping them construct watering facilities, fences, and other things needed by cattle and by ranchers. The partnership was a good one, and Cliven Bundy paid the grazing fees required by the BLM for many years. The people who ran the BLM, in the beginning, were rancher friendly, having degrees in solid scientific areas like geology, range management, animal husbandry, and the like. But beginning in the 1970’s and growing in numbers at an ever-increasing rate each year was a new generation of BLM-ocrats, those with degrees in the “environmental sciences.” This new generation saw ranchers not as fellow citizens cooperating in the effort to make the land productive, but as enemies who were destroying the environment. They had signs on their walls — “no more moo by 92” and “cattle free by 93.” As a result, in an effort to eliminate ranching in Nevada, the BLM began raising the annual fee for each cow on the range (AUM’s) and shortening the grazing season. Thus, out of over 50 ranchers in Clark County, only Cliven Bundy survived, as one by one all of his fellow ranchers gave up and went out of business because they couldn’t make a profit under the BLM’s oppressive rules. Continue reading →

And you can read the transcript of her opening testimony later in this blog piece.

Hearing on Protecting Privacy, Promoting Policy:

Some of the locations on the video, where Jane Robbins speaks:

Answer: 57:07 / 2:21:55;Question: 1:06:39 / 2:21:55 – Answer by Jane: 1:07:42 / 2:21:55 (use aggregate data, and consent for personal data — stop funding things that don’t work);Question to Jane: 1:17:29 / 2:21:55; Answer: put parents back in charge of their children’s education — government not choose their education track;Question to Jane: 1:19:45 / 2:21:55; Answer:1:21:11 / 2:21:55 education research over past years has been designed to reach a predetermined conclusion — needs to be unbiased — need more open broad-based research (even some that is out of favor)Question:1:28:07 / 2:21:55
Etc.

Jane Robbins and Emmett McGroarty sent out an article, part of which is in this blog post.

In their article they point out that DeVos recommends making all learning individualized, with each student in front of a computer, possibly at home.

Jane and Emmett point out that: “so-called personalized learning is actually depersonalized, computerized training rather than genuine education.”

Robbins and McGroarty suggest Betsy DeVos improve education by:

“(1) freeing the states from all federal mandates to the extent she can under the law; (2) working with Congress to revise ESSA to eliminate all mandates; and (3) creating a workable plan to shut down her department.” (The U.S. Department of Education)

Editorial comment – more needs to be done:

There also needs to be a change in the content of what is taught in schools, and how students are being taught in schools — changing from Type #2 education, and returning to Type #1 education. [Type #1 and Type #2 education are discussed on the Home Page of this website, and in blogs: 0005, 0091, and 0247]

Teachers need to be taught to teach, rather than being trained and forced to be facilitators and baby-sitters, spying and reporting on students, parents and other teachers.

ESSA didn’t change some of what was already going on in many schools, but since it became federal law in December 2015, it has been officially forcing every school to comply.

Betsy DeVos’ American Enterprise Institute (AEI) speech linked in full

You can read here the full transcript of the speech U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos gave on January 16, 2018, at an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) conference, “Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned.”Continue reading →

Parents need to begin to pay attention to what is going on within the schools of this nation — and seriously ask if it is safe to keep their children within the federal system.

It is dangerous to blindly fall for catchy phrases connected with learning. If a parent cares about their child and their future, the parent should dig into the meanings and implications connected with: digital learning; personal data collection connected to their child or children; easy ways to get college credit; individualized education – and a host of other current educational terms, theories and practices. Don’t be intimidated by the fancy language — and find out what is really happening in school.

Learn about “Blockchain Technology in Education.” An excerpt from article below: “In education, blockchain would enable all student records from any source to be uploaded into the system and shared with authorized users as part of a life-long dossier, or ‘digital transcript.'”

Sony Corporation and Sony Global Education (SGE) recently announced development of a system to apply blockchain technology to education. Parents who are concerned about the increasing digitalization of their children’s education, about security of their private data, and about the future of education in general should take note.Continue reading →

An article below, printed in The Boston Herald, reports more sad evidence revealing that people who supported Common Core were absolutely wrong in thinking that Common Core was something good for our country. People fell for the Common Core talking points that it was only a vague standard, and not curriculum — with a carrot of “free” money from the government.

To find other blog pieces on Common Core on this site, search above next to the Spyglass or in the Table f Contents: “Bracken” “Dangers of Common Core” “Standardize” or “Peg Luksik.”

A 2013 Common Core Debate

A 2013 Common Core debate is linked in blog 0089_Steamboat Institute Freedom Conference_Dabate with Larua Boggs for Common Core, and Jim Stergios against Common Core (a transcript of the debate is in blog 0089).

An excerpt from the article below:

“These standards rely on process- and skills-based ideas, which brush aside knowledge of Western and English literary traditions,” remarked one of the Pioneer analysts, Emory University English professor Mark Bauerlein.

“Instead, the new-age standards offer a heaping serving of multiculturalism, plus the preposterous notion of 21st century mathematics that renders obsolete, principles validated centuries ago. This is how the dumbing-down so beloved by social levelers proceeds.”

A bill in Congress, is attempting nationally take away the privacy of all of us — in the name of transparency. Do not be fooled by glowing reports from the Dept. of Education (Betsy DeVos). She has a long history of supporting financially, and supporting by being on the board of a national group that has always supported Common Core. (Example: Jeb Bush’s FEE – Foundation for Excellence in Education — which has always been aligned with nationalizing education through Common Core).

See other blogs on this site that talk about Betsy DeVos’ actual words and her actual actions connected with education. Though many of her words sound good, not all of them do. Find those blogs by typing in her name after you click the “spy glass” at the top of this page.

Eagle Forum alerts us to a vote that is scheduled to happen in the US House of Representatives
Wednesday, November 15, 2017

The Eagle Forum, founded by Phyllis Schlafly, always has been on the front line, protecting our freedoms and our national sovereignty.

You can read below, and link here, to their excellent, thorough information on HR 4174 sponsored by Speaker Paul Ryan – legislation which is due for a vote this Wednesday.

Betsy Devos, Secretary of Education in the U.S. Department of Education, decided last week week, to stand up against kangaroo trials on campuses. [Verdicts that are not impartial justice — in these cases, verdicts that are decided against young or older men, in advance.]

It is right that Betsy DeVos is standing up for those who have been accused, prosecuted and punished without a trial — those who have not been given a chance to present a case in their defense.

In this country we are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty — but too frequently in recent history, the supposition of innocence until proven guilty has been reversed: people are fmore commonoly considered guilty until proven innocent; and even when they are proven innocent, they must still suffer repercussions of having been treated as guilty when they were innocent.

There were two letters by President Obama (in 2010 and 2011) that expanded qualifications that would label a person guilty — qualifications that went far beyond any good reasoning.

But Betsy DeVos continues to think ESSA(Every Student Succeeds Act) and Common Core are good.

I hope Betsy DeVos also comes to understand that both ESSA and Common Core are wrong, and violate rights of individuals and states to determine education of children. Control of edeucation is supposed ot be a local and state issue.

Two years, one month, and one week ago, on July 28, 2015, I posted my first blog on this website.

A listing of all the posts can be found in the Table of Contents — each entry in the Table of Contents has a link to the corresponding blog post.

The Home Page shows what is wrong with education —
and the most critical thing to understand
in order to reverse the decline in education today – and to save our nation.

How do we fix the rapid decline in the education of too many people who do not graduate, and too many who do graduate from High Schools, Colleges and Universities?

It is not the condition of the buildings and other facilities — it is not the talent and good intentions and dedication of highly trained and competent teachers, administrators, counselors, teacher librarians, and all the support staff — it is not the freedom to choose the school a child attends (especially if all schools have Type #2 education) — it is not the amount of interest of the parents, or of the students — it is not computerizing all education and gathering more and more data on children, families, teachers, etc. — it is not simply emphasis on certain subjects like sports, music, art, science, technology, mathematics, language arts, reading, writing — it is not focus on becoming a global citizen — it is not in forcing all students to accept everything that students do and believe (unless they are politically incorrect). Standardizing all attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviors is not the answer, either — and training children to want to change their sexual identity will not improve education standards.

The thing that really matters is THE TYPE OF EDUCATION BEING TAUGHT IN THE CURRICULUM — THE CONTENT. Type #2 education is taking over our country — to the detriment of everyone. We need a shift back to Type #1.